Footprints in the Sand
by gymnast1454
Summary: A secret mission gone wrong, lies piling up, and obstacles to overcome. Ziva gets a life-changing injury during a seemingly harmless mission. Her recovery will be full of anger, sadness, and acceptance. The team will fight with her and support her throughout her struggles. They will carry her when times become too tough. TIVA.


**New story everyone! I'm sorry I have like 4 open stories but... Yeah! The fic-let muses won't leave me alone! Please enjoy, this one is one that started bugging me yesterday and I can't keep stories to myself so I always post... Hope that is okay! Enjoy! I will be putting a line of the poem "Footprints in the Sand" into every chapter at the beginning and the end so hopefully we will get to 12 chapters!**

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_ One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord._

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"Do you have a visual?" Gibbs' voice echoed through Tony's ear in the silent night. His legs ached from crouching behind a bush for the past three hours and his eyes were beginning to burn from intently staring at the dark windows of a small cabin. It was not putting him in a good mood.

"Not yet, there isn't any movement." He whispered into the wire concealed at his neckline, swatting at pesky gnats that annoyingly buzzed around his head.

"I do not have one either." said Ziva. She was in the same uncomfortable position as her partner and was just as angry about the situation as he was.

"Hold position for another hour before coming back. This lead might be a dead end." ordered Gibbs.

"Maybe if we knew what was actually going on instead of being lied to by Vance, then we might have already solved the problem he has. This obviously isn't missing persons, because who stakes out cabins fully-armed looking for a missing person who we were told _isn't_ dangerous?" Tony grumbled angrily. Ziva huffed in agreement from her location about 50 feet away. Tony squinted into the darkness to try and make out his partner from the surrounding foliage but couldn't see her.

"Tony." Gibbs said warningly. "We are to follow our orders whether we like it or not."

"Yes boss." He murmured back quietly.

Tony and Ziva crouched silently in the woods, counting the seconds to get out of the muggy forest. Gibbs sat rather comfortably in a surveillance van half a mile away, listening to his agents breathing and the sounds of the night. He agreed with Tony about the mission. Something was going with the higher-ups that Vance wasn't telling them about. Why else would he send the MCRT on a missing person's mission and refuse to give them any information other than where to look and a description to look for.

Ziva shuffled quietly from her vantage point, which was slightly lower than Tony's. Nothing had happened in the past three hours and she was beginning to feel like this had been a waste of her evening. She had been planning on a fun night with Abby since they hadn't been able to talk in a while. Abby was having some kind of problem and really wanted to talk, but Ziva had no clue what it was. Abby always seemed happy and carefree, but lately, she had been quite distraught.

A flying object came past her head and hit the leaves, rolling down the slight incline they were on, rustling leaves the entire way down. Then another one flew by, missing her wide again. She turned her head and strained her eyes into the darkness, trying to find out where the flying objects were coming from when one hit her in the back. She picked it up and found it to be a small stone.

"_Tony_." She scoffed to herself, then spoke into the microphone. "Knock it off Tony."

"What exactly are you talking about Ziva?" he asked, suspicious of her accusation.

To Ziva, his suspicious tone sounded like his mocking sarcasm and only infuriated him more. She couldn't stand when he messed around at crime scenes. "You know what I mean." Another rock sailed by her and tumbled through the leaves, this time it sounded larger. "Tony! Stop!" she growled.

"DiNozzo, whatever the hell you are doing, knock it off!" said Gibbs sternly.

"Boss, I don't know what Ziva thinks I am doing, but I am not doing anything." He said, frustrated with the entire situation.

"Who else could be throwing rocks at me then?" she asked, only halfway believing her partner.

"Throwing rocks? Why would I throw rocks at you?" he asked in disbelief. Sure he could be a little 'immature' with his pranks, but throwing rocks at his partner in the dark, in the night, and during a stakeout was irresponsible and dangerous, something he wouldn't do to her.

Before Ziva could come up with a retort, something large came rumbling down the hill towards her. She went to stand but her cramped legs buckled and she fell to her knees. The big thing came closer and something shoved her face down into the dirt. Ziva struggled and managed to hit what she now figured to be a man in the leg, but he grabbed her arm and twisted it awkwardly behind her back. She heard a sickening pop and felt white-hot pain resonate from her shoulder. "TONY –" she managed to yell, trying to stand and face her attacker. She heard a whooshing sound of an object swinging through the air before it made contact with her lower back, sending her body back to the ground. The blunt object struck her several more times in the back before she vaguely heard someone calling her name, then nothing.

Tony could hear something running through the forest and nearing their position. "Ziva?" He whispered, rising from his crouch slowly to stretch his legs. He heard rusting in his ear and Ziva's heavy breathing. Before he could call her again, he heard Ziva yell his name. That was all it took for Tony to run blindly towards his partner. He heard more struggling and several loud thumps that made all the color drain from his face.

"ZIVA!" He yelled. The rustling began to grow louder as it tried to move away. Tony finally thought to pull out his flashlight and shined the dim beam into the night air. He saw Ziva immediately about 10 feet diagonally downhill from him, lying awkwardly on the ground. Looking back on the night, Tony vaguely remembers seeing a figure retreating into the darkness, but all of his attention was focused on his fallen partner. He stumbled down the hill as quickly as possible, reaching her in a matter of seconds.

"DiNozzo, David, what happened?" asked Gibbs, worry creeping into his voice after hearing the odd noises from the agents.

"Boss, Ziva is down. We need a bus, the suspect took off but I'm staying with her." answered Tony. He turned his attention fully towards her, noting the awkward position of her right arm but was happy he could see her breathing. "Ziva." He said softly, kneeling by her side and gently rolling her from her stomach to her back. Again, probably a bad idea in the long run since he didn't know the extent of her injuries.

Ziva remained unconscious but she was still breathing strong and Tony couldn't find any open wounds on her. There was nothing else he could do other than gently stroke her hair and wait for the EMTs.

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_Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky._

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**I will update the other ones too, eventually!**


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